


The Truth Isn't Easy

by heartsdesire456



Series: Life In Motion [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Parents, Angst, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-28
Updated: 2013-11-28
Packaged: 2018-01-02 20:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1061544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsdesire456/pseuds/heartsdesire456
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John should’ve known to check for all the old files Stiles had stolen and notes he had taken on werewolves and their pack challenges long ago, when Stiles moved out. If he had, they wouldn’t be in the mess they were in now.</p><p>Warren brandished two fistfuls of paper at him angrily. “What is this?! Why- Why are there arrest records and newspaper clippings calling dad a <i>serial killer</i>?!”</p><p>John groaned and put his face in his hand. “Ah crap.” He left Warren and pulled out his phone. It only rang a few times before Stiles answered. “Kid, we’ve got problems.”</p><p>“WHAT THE HELL IS A DEUCALION?!”</p><p>John winced as if he’d physically been slapped. “Big problems.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truth Isn't Easy

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as a stand alone REALLY, but it's a third part following [The World Stops Turning, which was a sequel to ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1022828)[Life In Motion](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1010415) if you want the FULL story. 
> 
> I totally had NO plans for this. It just JUMPED ME last night. *defends self from attacking plot bunnies*

John should’ve known to check for all the old files Stiles had stolen and notes he had taken on werewolves and their pack challenges long ago, when Stiles moved out. If he had, they wouldn’t be in the mess they were in now.

Warren brandished two fistfuls of paper at him angrily. “What is this?! Why- Why are there arrest records and newspaper clippings calling dad a _serial killer_?!”

John groaned and put his face in his hand. “Ah crap.” He left Warren to shout at him as he walked away and pulled out his phone. It only rang a few times before Stiles answered. “Kid, we’ve got problems.”

“WHAT THE HELL IS A DEUCALION?!”

John winced as if he’d physically been slapped. “Big problems.”

~

Warren wasn’t speaking to them. Stiles tried to talk to him, Derek tried to talk to him, even Missy tried, but he had locked his door and _texted_ Stiles that he wouldn’t come out until someone told him everything.

Stiles shuffled into his and Derek’s room and fell down face first on the bed beside Derek. “Whyyyyyy?” he whined, voice muffled by the bed.

Derek sighed and reached out, rubbing his back soothingly. “He gets his snooping habits from you,” he said and Stiles huffed, rising up on his elbows to glare at Derek.

“He gets his mood swings from you,” he accused and Derek snorted.

“That’s a byproduct of a sixteen year old being an alpha,” he argued. “We’re lucky he doesn’t have a massive ego and a power complex.”

Stiles turned on his side, looking up at Derek. “Derek… he knows things. He’s found out enough that he wants the truth. What do we do?”

Derek put aside his book and slid down, lifting his arm so that Stiles could shift over and lay against his side, head on his chest. “I think we owe him the truth.”

Stiles groaned softly, curling his arms around Derek. “It will change everything. He’ll see us all differently. He won’t ever see us the same, Derek. Oh _God_ Peter and Ethan and Aiden and _Allison_ ,” he whimpered. “He’s too young for that kind of burden-“

“You were sixteen when you guided Scott through being a werewolf alone,” Derek interrupted in a soft murmur, stroking Stiles’s side soothingly. “You were sixteen when you saved my life. Multiple times. You were sixteen when you started seeing people be murdered firsthand. You were sixteen when you and your dad took a pregnant _killer_ werewolf into your home and let him have another chance-“

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Stiles grumbled, pouting at Derek playfully. Derek smiled and leaned in to peck his lips, lingering as Stiles hummed. “I was sixteen when I fell in love with you,” Stiles whispered and Derek chuckled.

“Danny was sixteen when he got Ethan pregnant,” he joked and Stiles groaned.

“Oh my God, if Warren gets some girl pregnant I will kill him myself,” he said, earning an amused huff from Derek. Stiles sobered up some. “You were sixteen when- shit, Derek, we have to talk about that with him, too.”

Derek’s blood ran cold, but he gave a resigned sigh. “I know. I don’t even know if all of the others know what happened fully. I’m almost sure Chris at least doesn’t know all of what Kate did.”

Stiles sighed. “This is going to be really bad.”

“It has to happen,” Derek said weakly. “Warren is old enough to know the hard truths. I wish we could shield him, but the fact of it is, if we don’t tell him now, there may not be a time when we can explain it all and then make him understand that the past is the past. He’s an alpha of this pack. He deserves to know the past and, honestly, it’s probably time everybody was on a level playing field for good. I think most of us all know the same things, but some things may have been overlooked.”

“This will cause so much tension in the pack,” Stiles added, fiddling with Derek’s tee shirt. “So many old wounds reopened.”

“Warren would be better hearing it from the sources than from what he can find in old news clippings and put together,” Derek answered with a shrug. “We mostly just need to decide how and when we’re going to do this.”

Stiles whimpered, slinging a leg over Derek’s lap, clinging to him. “Wake me up when this is over,” he whined and Derek chuckled, tipping his head down to kiss him slowly, curling his arms tighter around him to hold him close.

~

They waited until Peter had closed the shop, late the next evening, to talk to Warren there. They didn’t want the other kids to overhear anything. They didn’t decide to get together the whole pack. Stiles wanted it to be the least painful as possible. Ethan and Aiden, Peter, Allison, and Derek were the ones who would suffer the most difficult truths about themselves coming out. Chris and John were there to help explain their parts in everything. Derek and Stiles had talked together to decide what all to tell Warren and, for the most part, they decided it was best to just come clean. Derek agreed.

Derek waited until Stiles texted and then he handed the twins off to Cora. “Sorry about this,” he said and she shrugged.

“It had to happen eventually,” she said, then smiled down at the twins. “You ready to play with Aunt Cora?” she asked in a softer tone, making them both smile.

Casey and Carmen, Stiles and Derek’s seventh and eighth kids, were two. They were also _human_. Derek had been worried about taking two human babies with a house full of werewolf children, but he and Stiles couldn’t _not_ take them. Their mother had been a werewolf from a pack of criminal werewolves who had been taken out by hunters up in Washington. The hunters were decent ones who stuck to the code, so as soon as they found that they had orphaned a little boy and a little girl, they had sought Chris’s counsel. They didn’t want to turn them over to child services since they had no excuse for where their family went, but they didn’t have anyone that could care for a set of one year old twins. They hadn’t even been sure they were humans since infant werewolves didn’t change with the moon. 

Scott was able to tell them immediately that they were humans, but the hunters didn’t want them still. It had taken a few meetings before the hunters were willing to give two human babies over to Derek and Stiles, but eventually they realized there wasn’t a better option. Derek had been terrified he would hurt them by accident, since human babies were so fragile. He had been terrified that one of the other kids would hurt them by forgetting their strength, as well. However, they were two now and it hadn’t happened, so he figured they were safe.

The funniest part was how, even as humans, they clearly picked up their werewolf brothers and sisters’ habits. As Cora took them from Derek, they both made happy little rumbles, just like werewolves would, and snuggled into Cora’s shirt happily. They didn’t even know what scent marking was, they couldn’t smell like the werewolves could, but they had picked up the habits of scent marking from everybody else. “Awwww, time to play with my favorite babies,” Cora cooed, kissing both of their heads.

Derek smiled and nodded. “We’ll be back late,” he admitted and she shrugged.

“It’s okay. We knew this was coming. Just don’t screw it up,” she said, taking the twins to the living room as Derek turned to go get Warren so they could leave. 

~

It was easy to tell nobody was looking forward to Derek and Warren arriving. Ethan and Aiden were _silent_. They were sitting side by side in one chair, Aiden’s head laid on Ethan’s shoulder as they stared down at the floor. Peter was studiously scrubbing the same spot on the counter he had been scrubbing for the past half hour. Allison was sitting beside her father, holding his hand tightly as she looked down at her knees. 

Stiles sighed and let his head fall to the window behind him as he waited with John at the door. “This is going to suck. A lot.”

John sighed and patted his back. “It was gonna happen someday.”

When Derek and Warren came to the door, Stiles unlocked it for them, then let them in. Warren looked angry still. Derek looked more nervous than Stiles had seen him in a long time. Stiles slid his hand down Derek’s arm as he fell into step beside him, making him stop. “It’s okay,” Stiles whispered comfortingly, even if moments before he wasn’t so sure of that. He leaned in and kissed Derek softly, bumping their noses together. “Just remember he’s your son. He’ll love you no matter what.” He pulled Derek down to kiss his forehead before he let him go to lock up behind them.

“Okay, how are we going to start this?” Derek asked, pulling up a chair and sitting in it backwards, arms crossed over the back as he looked around the room. Peter came and sat at the table beside the couch where Chris and Allison were sitting. John and Stiles sat on either side of the chair where the twins were sitting, facing Warren as he sat on the far side of the couch away from John, nearer to the back of the room from the others as they sat in a circle with a few spare chairs between them left over from rearranging. 

“Warren?” Stiles asked, looking over at him with sad eyes. “What do you want to know?”

Warren huffed, picking at his hoodie as he looked up at Derek. “Did you ever kill anybody?” he asked almost accusingly.

Derek didn’t hesitate to nod. “Yes,” he said simply and Warren’s eyes widened. Derek gave him a serious look. “Not a single person in this room hasn’t killed before, Warren, besides you.” He nodded to Allison. “Even if not directly, Allison has helped. John and Stiles have both had to kill people in the line of duty. Stiles has tried to kill in self-defense-“

“But you got _arrested_ and called a _serial killer_!” Warren accused. “You- did you? Did you really-“

“No,” Stiles said firmly. “That was a mistake. It was my fault he got called a serial killer,” he said and Warren looked surprised. “You don’t know it, but I’m the reason Uncle Scott is a werewolf,” he said and Warren gaped. “We were sixteen, I was too curious for my own good, and Dad was out looking for a body in the woods, so I snuck into Scott’s room and we went looking too. That’s where he got attacked. My dad busted me and Scott ran home and on the way, he got attacked.” Stiles glanced up and Peter tilted his head in acknowledgement.

“By me,” he said and Warren snatched his head around.

“But… but you’re a beta.”

Peter looked down at the table, a haunted look crossing his face. “The body in the woods. It was Derek’s sister.” Warren looked horrified. “I was… ill,” he said with a wry smile. “You know the story of what happened to mine and Derek’s family?” Warren nodded. “I survived the fire but was in a coma. For six years. I was awake the whole time. Trapped inside my own body.” He looked up at Warren. “I was insane. My body had begun to heal enough that, with the moon, I was able to escape. A nurse at the facility covered for me when I hunted. Derek and his sister Laura, the only other two who survived from our pack, had moved away. But when the signs of my hunting showed up, Laura came back. I wanted revenge. I wanted revenge on those who murdered my family, so when I found her in the woods, I killed her for the alpha power.”

Warren’s gaping mouth snapped shut and he fixed a solemn mask on his face. “But- you’re a beta now.”

“I killed him.” Warren looked at Derek in a shock and Derek nodded. “But not before he killed a lot of people related to the fire. Stiles and Scott thought I killed Laura so they told the Sheriff. But I didn’t know Peter did it. I thought it was a rogue alpha who killed Laura. I didn’t find out it was Peter until it was almost too late. He had killed many people. He went after tons of others. He had murdered so many people I didn’t think of him as Peter anymore,” he explained. 

“The last person I killed before Derek killed me was the woman who was in charge of the arson,” Peter said, looking away when Chris and Allison looked at him.

Warren frowned and Chris sighed, closing his eyes. “My sister,” he said and Warren’s eyes snapped to him. “My sister killed them. A whole family of innocent people. Werewolves and humans were in that house. My family was… not who I thought we were.” He shook his head. “I loved my sister, don’t get me wrong. But she was going to kill Scott and Derek that night and if it came to it, I was going to take her out myself to stop her,” he said in a clipped tone. “Before I could, the rogue alpha we had been hunting got involved. He killed her and then we stopped him.”

Warren looked at Derek blankly. “That’s how you became an alpha.”

Derek nodded. “Scott was going to kill him and I knew Scott wouldn’t be able to handle being an alpha so I slit his throat,” he said, then sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “I didn’t do much better.”

Warren nodded. “So… if you killed Peter, how is he alive?”

“Magic,” Peter said softly. “I was resurrected with magic. I wasn’t quite as deranged when I came back. I helped when I could. Mostly I stayed out of the way.”

Warren frowned. “Helped with what?”

Stiles flinched slightly. “Gerard,” he said in a tight voice. 

Warren saw several people tense and frowned. “Who?”

Chris cleared his throat. “My father,” he said and smiled coldly at Warren’s disbelieving look. “What you’ve learned about Argent hunters isn’t wrong. I was lucky that I escaped with Allison at all.”

“There was this thing called the Kanima,” Stiles started, then waved a hand at Warren. “It’s a long story that isn’t quite as important. But just know that Gerard Argent was- he was _evil_ in the purest form,” he stressed. “He came here after Kate was killed and he just- he started a genocide, really. He wanted to kill all werewolves. Innocent, guilty, didn’t matter. He wanted them all dead. Scott was sixteen and he would’ve killed him anyways.”

Warren frowned. “What happened?”

“They took over the school,” Allison said, looking at him. “My family and our hunters, they took over the school and started targeting my friends. I was dating Scott then and my parents knew he was a werewolf but they kept it from Gerard so he wouldn’t kill him. But then my mom-“ She looked down and away. “She took it upon herself to kill Scott anyways to keep him away from me.”

Warren frowned. “I never asked… but your mom?” he asked looking apologetic.

Stiles looked at Derek, who looked straight ahead at Warren. “I tried to save Scott and in the fight, I bit her.” Warren’s head jerked around. “It was self-defense, but it still started turning her.”

Warren frowned. “But what happened?” He paled. “Did you- did you kill her, too?”

Derek shook his head. Allison reached out and grabbed Chris’s hand and he squeezed it before looking up. “My wife took her own life.” Warren stared at him. “Hunters had a set of rules. If you were bitten, you committed suicide rather than become a monster. I tried to reason with them, but Gerard had poisoned her the same way he poisoned my sister. She took her own life and I helped her.” He shook his head. “I lost my wife and I almost lost Allison because of it.”

“Gerard got to her, too,” Warren realized and Allison nodded.

“He convinced me Derek was to blame. I made it my mission to kill Derek. I was the last woman to be in charge, so I made the decision that the betas were all to be left alive unless they killed someone since they were kids, but Derek was mine.” She shook her head. “Turned out Gerard didn’t want Derek dead, he wanted Derek to bite him and turn him and then he would kill him and become the alpha himself.”

“Whoa,” Warren said in shock. “That’s- that’s so messed up!” He looked around. “Gerard… he was really sick, huh?”

Stiles growled tightly, looking up with tears in his eyes. “I hated him enough because he _tortured_ me,” he spat and Chris and Allison’s heads jerked up. 

“Stiles…”

Stiles nodded. “Yeah, I never- I didn’t really talk about it,” he said and Chris looked horrified. “But beyond that, Warren, he was also the one to really blame for- for all the crap that happened _after_ he was gone from here. So much terrible stuff and it was all traced back to him.”

John reached out and touched Warren’s shoulder. “You asked about another name.” 

“Yeah, Deucalion-“ Warren stopped when he saw how Ethan and Aiden both flinched. “What- what’s a Deucalion?”

“Another evil that Gerard caused,” Stiles said bitterly, wiping at his cheek as a tear broke free. “A long time ago Gerard was facing a peace agreement from many packs and their alphas and instead of taking their agreement to stop the fighting, he attacked his own hunters and killed the werewolves and blamed the massacre on the werewolves. One wolf survived.”

Warren cringed. “It was Deucalion and let me guess, he was a psycho?”

“Actually no,” Peter said softly. “Before Gerard’s attack, Deucalion was very intelligent and just. My sister spoke of him with great respect and she was the most respected alpha in the area.” He smiled sadly down at the table. “Talia was… Talia was more like a mother than a sister to me, and she was a great alpha. Better than any alpha I’ve ever heard of. Deucalion came to her for counsel before the attack. But she warned him against trusting Gerard. She urged him to get the alphas and their packs _away_ but he was so sure they could reach a peace agreement. Instead Gerard brought a massacre that drove Deucalion mad with the need for revenge.” 

Derek spoke up. “He created an alpha pack. A pack with nothing but alphas. He came looking to recruit.”

Warren frowned. “But how can you be a pack without betas?”

“You kill them all,” Aiden said in a small voice, startling Warren into looking at him. Aiden met his eyes. “With every beta you kill, you become stronger. If you kill your whole pack, you’re strong. You’re an omega, but strong. But if you join other alphas, you can have a pack that’s virtually unstoppable.”

Warren gaped in horror at Aiden and Ethan. “Did- were you-“

Ethan nodded. “But I don’t regret that,” he said with a vicious twinkle in his eyes. “I don’t regret that at all. Just what happened after we had joined Deucalion’s pack.”

Aiden nodded. “The pack we were from… they were horrible. They were _monsters_. They- they killed for fun. And we were the pack whipping boys. The beat us and- and starved us. They abused us every way you can imagine,” he said darkly. “I won’t ever regret ripping them all apart.”

“They deserved it,” Ethan growled. 

Aiden looked at Ethan, who nodded. “But- but Deucalion and his pack… we were too scared to run away.”

Ethan cringed. “We did bad things. Really bad things.” He looked up. “I am almost positive the only reason we’re alive today is because I was pregnant with Noa already. We changed sides at the end, but not before-“ He closed his eyes. “Not before we helped kill your dad’s betas.”

Warren shook his head in horror. “But- you couldn’t- you wouldn’t do that!”

“We did,” Aiden said solemnly. “There’s two of us. We were scared that if we tried to escape or defy orders… well Deucalion or one of the others would hurt the other. I couldn’t say no to anything, or they would hurt Ethan.”

“Same,” Ethan said tightly. “We helped capture them. We held them captive. With Cora,” he added and Warren just stared. “Deucalion already had her when he got us, so God knows how long she was there. But we held them captive. Kali – one of the other alphas – she killed Erica in a fight. And then later, she made us hold your dad down and she dropped Boyd on his claws.”

Warren looked at Derek and saw Derek’s head was down on his arms. He shook his head weakly, looking back. “But- but you’re not like that-“

“Fear does something to you,” Stiles said weakly. “If it was ‘do what I say, or I’ll kill Missy’, what would you do?” he asked and Warren paled rapidly. “Exactly.” He shook his head. “It’s not so simple. You can’t just say someone has to be a killer to kill someone. Ethan and Aiden… they did something horrible. They did a lot of something’s horrible. But even when we all hated them, they were already too mixed up in our lives to do anything.”

“I was pregnant, so they couldn’t kill me,” Ethan said. “And John- John was too nice to kick us out,” he said with a sad smile. “John let us live with him and Stiles because we were alone and I was pregnant and then I had a newborn cub. It was hard to- to come past what we did, Warren. I don’t live a single day I don’t regret what we did. But we did it.” He nodded at Allison. “She’s tried to kill half of us. Peter killed Laura and God knows what all else he’s done. Chris didn’t stop people from trying to hunt the others before it was too late. We all have regrets.”

Peter nodded. “There are skeletons in everyone’s closets, Warren.”

Warren sobered up suddenly. He turned to Derek and stared. “I- I just realized that- that your eyes are blue. You try to hide your eyes most of the time but I’ve seen it. I never thought about it but… I remember now. I remember when I was really little. I barely remember learning what blue eyes and gold eyes meant.” He tilted his head. “Why are yours blue? Peter wasn’t innocent.”

Stiles let out a strangled sound and Peter snapped his head up. Everybody else looked confused and Stiles shook his head. “No, Warren, that’s not a big deal. It’s just- just a thing. It’s nothing-“

“No,” Derek said tightly. He ran a hand over his face, looking up with his eyes shining blue. “He deserves his answers-“

“That isn’t a question that has any relevance-“

“Stiles, we agreed to answer his questions,” Derek said firmly, looking at Stiles. “I know you want to protect me, but he is an alpha and he’s your son. He will not settle on unanswered questions.”

Allison frowned. “I don’t- I don’t understand. What does blue or gold mean? I thought it was just- just-“

“Genetic?” Peter asked with a weak chuckle. “Stiles said the same.” He looked up at Allison then to Chris, who shrugged. “Really?”

Chris shook his head. “We knew less about werewolves than you might think, Peter.”

“Well, my dear, I’m afraid it’s simpler than genetics.” He hesitated. “A werewolf’s eyes turn blue if he or she kills an innocent person. To take an innocent life changes more than just your eye color. Before Laura, my eyes were gold. Then they turned red. Then when I was resurrected, they were blue.”

Allison tilted her head. “Derek’s eyes were always blue, though.”

Chris made a face. “Derek was very young, though. Twenty-one, twenty-two at the most. And he wasn’t vicious-“

“It doesn’t matter what your intent, though,” Derek interrupted. He looked at Warren, showing no fear, only remorse. “My eyes turned blue when I was fifteen.”

“Fifteen?!” Warren asked in shock. “But- was it an accident or- you’re not a murderer.”

Derek smiled sadly. “No. I wasn’t.” His eye twitched slightly. “I could do like Stiles and blame Peter and Gerard, but the truth is, Peter didn’t know what would happen, he just liked making trouble when we were kids. I was gullible and naïve. I paid for it dearly many times.”

Peter nodded. “I had no idea the bite could kill someone,” he said and Warren paled.

“It- it can- it can kill someone?” he asked and Peter nodded.

Derek looked at Warren closely. “The meeting of the alphas we mentioned?” Warren nodded. “It was around that time. I was fifteen and I was crazy about this human girl. I was terrified she would hate me if she found out I was a werewolf. She was my first girlfriend and we both were so sure it was love and forever,” he said bitterly. “Peter suggested I ask her to meet me and then get one of the visiting alphas to bite her. That way she wouldn’t be scared. It was stupid, but I was so scared of losing her so I did it. Only instead of just meet us and bite her, he attacked her.”

Allison let out a weak sound. “It killed her,” she realized and Derek looked over, then shook his head sadly.

“No. It was killing her, she was dying, but it isn’t what did it.” He looked at Warren to avoid the looks those who were hearing it for the first time had. “I took her to a root cellar-“ John made a strangled noise of shock. “And I held her while she was dying. And it hurt so much she asked me to make it stop. And I did,” he said weakly. “I killed her to make her pain end. She was dying anyways. I didn’t want her to suffer more.”

Chris looked at Peter. “The Nemeton.” Peter nodded solemnly.

“A virgin ‘sacrifice’ on the roots of the Nemeton.”

“Well shit,” John said, shocking some of the others. He huffed. “Literally almost everything bad in this town can be traced back to Gerard freaking Argent, huh?”

Derek smiled tightly. “Well, things set into motion by him. But my actions were my own.”

Stiles turned to Warren when he saw him open his mouth. “Just- just don’t, okay?” he said weakly. “Don’t ask about the Nemeton. Every single one of us almost died that night so just- just wait on that one, okay? I don’t think I can handle it,” he said weakly.

“Stiles, if he wants to know-“ Stiles snapped his head up, giving Derek a frustrated look.

“That bitch almost killed my dad, I had to _basically commit suicide_ , I dealt for years with that darkness inside of me, she pretty much _raped_ you, she nearly killed Scott, she DID kill people I was friends with, she nearly killed Lydia, and I _still_ have nightmares about that night. If he wants to know, you tell him. But not now. I just can’t, okay?” Stiles deflated, putting his face in his hands. “I can’t. That was worse than all of it. That was worse than- watching her stab my dad and then- then drowning myself in an ice bath. I can’t even-“

Derek started to get up but everybody was surprised when it was Warren who stood up and swiftly moved to Stiles’s side. He knelt down in front of his father and pulled him into a hug. “It’s okay. I won’t ask,” he said softly, laying his head on Stiles’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Dad. It’s okay. Just breathe.”

Stiles let out a wet laugh, clinging to Warren. “I’m okay,” he said, stroking at Warren’s back as he hugged him. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I freaked out, I just-“

“No, it’s okay. I- I’m getting the idea you’re allowed to freak out.” He smiled sadly at Stiles. “I’m not sorry I asked though.” 

Stiles chuckled and shook his head. “Of course not. You’re a hardheaded kid when it comes to wanting to know things.”

“Now you know what I put up with,” John said and Stiles turned to smile at him. 

“Yeah, Warren gets it honestly,” Derek said as he knelt down beside Warren and Stiles, putting hands on either of their backs. “You okay?” he asked Warren, who nodded.

“Yeah, I think Stiles is still kinda freaking out, though,” he said and Stiles glared at him playfully.

Stiles laid his head over against Derek’s neck, pulling Warren in so he and Derek could both hug him. “I promise we can talk about anything else you need to know another time.”

“Oddly enough, I think I’m okay for now,” Warren said with a rueful smile. “It’s okay though. I- I get why you didn’t want to tell me. I just can’t help but be glad you trusted me enough to tell me now.”

Stiles huffed. “Well like your father pointed out, I was sixteen when all of this stuff went on. You can handle the stories if I was able to handle living it.” He cupped his cheek. “I just didn’t want you to- to look at your pack differently, you know?”

Warren hesitated, but steeled his expression. “Everybody has a past. But- but you guys are still my pack,” he said with finality. 

~

Derek shut the door after tucking in the twins and headed back to his and Stiles’s room. Stiles was sitting on the bed with his laptop and Derek smiled at how he looked with his glasses sliding off his face. Derek walked over and crawled into bed beside Stiles, leaning over against his shoulder. “Aren’t you done with that?” he asked. “I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. Sleeeep,” he whined playfully.

Stiles laughed and closed his laptop. “You sound like me,” he teased, shoving the laptop off to sit on the bed table. He slid back under the covers and wiggled down, grinning when Derek grabbed him around the middle and hauled him in so he could lay his head on Stiles’s chest, clinging to him. “So… what a night, huh?” he asked, stroking at Derek’s hair.

Derek snorted. “No shit.” He petted at Stiles’s stomach soothingly. “We’ve got one hell of a kid, huh?”

Stiles smiled warmly, insides glowing. “Yeah, we really do.” He kissed Derek’s hair. “You know, we’re not half bad at this ‘parenting’ thing.”

Derek hummed happily. “Well it’s good, that, since we have eight of them.” He looked up at Stiles. “Do you really think Warren’s going to be okay with all he knows?”

Stiles shrugged. “I don’t know. I think he can handle it though. Eventually at least.” He looked at Derek. “Derek, my kid is as old as I was when I met you. This is so not okay,” he said suddenly and Derek laughed, leaning up to kiss Stiles.

“Don’t worry, if any rough looking, leather jacket wearing werewolves come skulking around, you’ll be prepared to give him advice,” he teased and Stiles whined.

“I’m getting old.”

“Yep,” Derek teased, earning an offended huff. “It’s not bad, it’s just a mark of how much we’ve been through together. We’re both getting older and older every day, and our kids are growing up, and our lives are going further.” He stroked his cheek. “I remember thinking I’d never live to see thirty, Stiles. And I remember thinking I’d never see you open your eyes again. I’m not bothered at all by us getting older. Cause we _got here_.”

Stiles grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Stupid, romantic Sourwolf,” he muttered, then winked at Derek, pecking his lips. “Hopefully, tonight was the roughest thing we’ll have to face for at least another five years.”

“Exactly,” Derek said, tucking his head under Stiles’s chin. Stiles smiled against his hair and closed his eyes. 

It was hard to think back on the past, but there was one truth to it all, and that was that back then they had been living life one day at a time. Now, looking back, Stiles was glad that Derek had been with him for so many of those days, and he was glad that Derek would help him through all the days they still had to come.


End file.
